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October 2012 ECHO CHAMBER Archives

Tonight as part of the KFAI fall pledge drive we revisited a theme we have not done in awhile: A Fistful of Dub: A Dread Western Special. The Echo Chamber headed out to the wild, wild west! The anchors of the show (and the two items that were the germ of the project) were Roots Control’s fantastic Dread Western album (on Wordsound) and the Ennio Morricone soundtrack to the spaghetti western movie The Good, The Bad, and the Ugly. Also fitting right in is the Trojan Records “western reggae” compilation “The Big Gundown”. More great stuff, including: the excellent new “Return of Gringo” album from Prince Fatty meets the Mutant Hi-Fi; Vincenzo Cipollone (“Far West” album); Space Monkeys vs. Gorillaz (“Clint Eastwood”); Clint Eastwood & General Saint; Dub Spencer & Trance Hill (covering the Clash’s “Magnificent Seven”); Guvna (with “Fistful of Dub”); Tommy McCook & the Skatalites; Boomski (with “Bad Horsie” from the Dubbhism album “She Was A Rough Rider”); Lloyd Charmers; The Specials; Pale Rider; “Double Barrel”, both the original from Dave & Ansel Collins, plus Bad Manners’ cover; and so much more…including tons of soundbytes from the movie “The Good, The Bad, and the Ugly”. Heck we even included the main title music from the classic Blazing Saddles movie from Mel Brooks!

Lots of new music to debut tonight: celebrating 20 years Stubborn Records released the “Dub Discoveries from Version City” from Victor Rice, and we kicked off the show with “FCC Dub”; Dubsmith makes his debut on Boom One Records with the “Time for Change” EP; Anthony B makes his debut on Irie Vibrations Records with his “Freedom Fighter” album; Dubkasm dusts off some vintage dubplates (mixed by Aba Shanti) on their “Brixton Rec” album on Bristol Archive Records and McPullish is back with heavy new dubs on his “Black Metal White Reggae” album on Charlie’s Records. More new sounds from The Ashley, Vibraphonic Orchestra, Copia Doble Sound System, Kukan Dub Lagan, Victoria Moralez, Singer Jah, The Orb/Lee Scratch Perry, Pacha Massive, Boom One Sound System, Damo Naimad, John Brown’s Body, and TeraKaft. On top of that we had Susan Cadogan covering “Imagine” and Marshall Williams covering “Norwegian Wood” to celebrate John Lennon’s birthday.

Kicking things off tonight with McPullish’s excellent new “Black Metal White Reggae” album (Charlie’s Records); followed by the latest Vibronics & friends on SCOOPs Records; King Django & Victor Rice with “Dub Discoveries From Version City” (celebrating 20 years of Stubborn Records); and the “Lost Album” unearthed and released by Groove Corp. Also tonight we did an Easy Star All Stars set to celebrate their “Thrillah” tour (and my trip to Chicago to see them). More great new stuff from Tafari, Beats Antique, Kukan dub Lagan, The Dynamics, The Dubsmith, Victoria Moralez, Damo Naimad, The Vibraphonic Orchestra, and Dada Afrik & Calcia.

What a full program tonight: tons of new releases, a few classics, a number of eclectic Swiss picks, and part 1 of a special mix from Manwel T (originally done for Terry C’s Echo Beach on WLUW-FM). The big new releases included: the excellent “Red Shadow Landing” album from All India Radio; Steve Steppa’s fine new rootical album “Zion Door”; U-Roy’s sweet new “Pray Fi Di People” album; Beats Antique’s new “Contraption – Vol.2” EP; the cool “Synchronicity Dub” single from Wavewhore & ACEtone Studios; and Fu-Step’s dubwise “No More Vibes to Waste” album.

All the ghouls, goblins, ghosts, and dreads gathered with Dr. StrangeDub & DJ Baby Swiss in the annual Echo Chamber of Horrors! And what a howling good show – with layers of special effects & soundbytes, including the movies “Dracula”, “Frankenstein”, “The Exorcist”, and more – and tons of scary dubwise music. And what a varied cast of characters in this year’s production…